‘Shocker’: Australian cricket team brutally snubbed by ICC as Team of the Year revealed

The Australian cricket team has every right to feel hard done by as the cricket world slammed a bizarre decision made by the ICC.

The Australian cricket team has completed everything possible in all forms of the game in recent years but its players have still been inexplicably snubbed in the ICC men’s ODI Team of the Year.

As the sport’s governing body began unveiling its awards for the 2024 season on Friday, only one Aussie made the cut in any of its teams.

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The Test team chosen by the ICC’s Voting Academy featured four Englishmen and three Indians.

But only Aussie captain and fast bowler Cummins made the Test Team of the Year, while no Australian made the ODI side at all, despite Australia being the reigning ODI World Cup champions.

Pat Cummins was the only Aussie to make any of the ICC’s Team of the Years. (Photo by DAVID GRAY / AFP)

Cummins, who won the Sir Garfield Sobers award as the ICC’s Mens Cricketer of the Year in 2023, oversaw six Australian triumphs, two losses and a draw as Test captain in the last calendar year while leading his side to another World Test Championship final.

It’s the second straight year the veteran quick has been selected as the all-star team captain following Australia’s series wins over Pakistan, New Zealand and India, during which time he racked up 37 wickets at 24.02.

But there was no room in either the Test or ODI Team of the Year for the likes of Travis Head, despite the batsman being widely regarded as the world’s best middle-order batsman across red-ball and white-ball cricket, whacking 608 runs with three centuries and one half-century in 2024,

While Josh Hazlewood (35 wickets at 13.6), Nathan Lyon (33 wickets at 22.69), and wicketkeeper Alex Carey (440 runs at 33.84 and 49 dismissals) can all feel hard done by not making the Test or ODI teams.

India's Virat Kohli greets Australia's Glenn Maxwell. Photo by Sajjad HUSSAIN / AFP.

But it is the ODI side that is the most perplexing, with not a single one of Australia’s World Cup champions making the team, with the XI made up almost entirely of Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Afghanistan internationals. 

Bizarrely not a single Indian, South African, New Zealander or English player made the cut for the ODI team either.

However, it must be noted neither India nor Australia had a successful 2024 in the ODI arena.

India failed to win a single ODI in 2024, whereas, Australia succumbed to a shock home series defeat to Pakistan.

But even still the criteria for selection has been rightly questioned by cricket fans following the ICC’s announcement, with many feeling as if any of the big ODI teams would beat the supposed ‘Team of the Year’.

Australia are the ODI World Champions but still not a single player made the cut. (Photo by Sajjad HUSSAIN / AFP) –

“If I am not wrong, this is the first time that no Indian, England, Australian, South Africa, New Zealand player in the ODI team of the year,” one fan wrote on ICC’s ODI Team of the Year announcement on X.

“It’s looking more like ICC 2nd tier ODI team of the year,” a second commented.

“Surely this isn’t what they came up with,” a third added.

“SHOCKER! The ICC Men’s ODI Team of the Year 2024 has NO players from cricket giants like India, Australia, or England!” a fourth noted.

Men’s Test Team of the Year:

Yashasvi Jaiswal (India), Ben Duckett (England), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), Joe Root (England), Harry Brook (England), Kamindu Mendis (Sri Lanka), Jamie Smith (wkt, England), Ravindra Jadeja (India), Pat Cummins (capt, Australia), Matt Henry (New Zealand), Jasprit Bumrah (India).

Men’s ODI Team of the Year:

Saim Ayub (Pakistan), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Afghanistan), Pathum Nissanka (Sri Lanka), Kusal Mendis (wkt, Sri Lanka), Charith Asalanka (capt, Sri Lanka), Sherfane Rutherford (West Indies), Azmatullah Omarzai (Afghanistan), Wanindu Hasaranga (Sri Lanka), Shaheen Shah Afridi (Pakistan), Haris Rauf (Pakistan), AM Ghazanfar (Afghanistan).

Originally published as ‘Shocker’: Australian cricket team brutally snubbed by ICC as Team of the Year revealed